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THE HEPWORTH 
YEAR BOOK 



COMPILED FROM THE WRITINGS OF 

GEORGE H. HEPWORTH 

AUTHOR OF " HIRAM GOLF'S RELIGION," "THE FARMER AND 
THE LORD," ETC., ETC, 




NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

3 1 West Twenty-third Street 

5^> 5^ \ ST TWO COPIES RECEIVED 







% Copyright, 1897, by 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 




JANUARY. 

Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose 
% runs } 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the pro- 
cess of the suns, 

Tennyson. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR 
BOOK. 

January First. 

You can make a great many resolu- 
tions in five minutes, but it will take a 
lifetime to keep them. 



January Second. 

Christ began and ended his earthly 
career in the belief that this was God's 
world and not His, while we begin and 
end it under the conviction that the 
world is ours and not God's. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



January Third, 

Nobody gets out of his life half as 
much as God has put into it. 



January Fourth. 

The forbearance of the Almighty with 
our wilfulness and conceit, His everlast- 
ing patience with us, is one of the most 
wonderful facts of the universe, and one 
of the most thrilling and startling. 



January Fifth. 

Open your mouth to say all the good 
you can of every one, but seal your 
mouth against the utterance of a mean 
sarcasm or suspicion. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



January Sixth. 

There is no experience which may not 
be used for your benefit if you and God 
engage in the task together. 



January Seventh. 

Death is only the servant who opens 
the door when Providence rings the bell, 
and ushers you into the larger building, 
where you will have the chance to be- 
come a larger man, 



January Eighth. 

The religion of Christ states that in 
morals, as in mathematics, two and two 
make four, and if you think otherwise 
no power in heaven or earth can make 
your books balance. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



January Ninth. 

It is profitable to so far anticipate the 
future that you prepare to meet it; but 
when you have done all that can be done, 
it is exceedingly unprofitable to so 
weaken yourself by worry that the com- 
ing sorrow is doubled in weight. 



January Tenth. 

There is no happiness except in obedi- 
ence, not even a scintilla, and just so 
long as we are wilful and selfish, so long 
we must take the consequences. 



January Eleventh. 

Take away from the compass all dis- 
turbing substances, let the needle obey 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 7 

its natural impulse, and it will swing to 
the north. Under like conditions the 
soul will swing toward heaven. 



January Twelfth. 

The path by which you reach the top 
of a mountain is of no consequence 
whatever, and if your neighbor chooses 
to get there in some other w r ay you are 
very ungracious if you denounce him 
for exercising his own judgment instead 
of following yours. His brains belong 
to him and your brains belong to you. 
You may do as you please and he may 
do as he pleases. 



January Thirteenth. 

Religion is the science which tells us 
how to produce the highest results, and 



8 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

as such no man can afford to be indiffer- 
ent to it. 



January Fourteenth. 

Hell is simply the displeasure of God 
mingled with your condemnation of 
yourself. Brimstone fires are nothing in 
comparison with the flames of remorse 
and self-reproach. 



January Fifteenth. 

There is no sleight of hand possible 
with the verities of God, and the sternest 
of all facts is that you cannot be made 
good by a miracle and cannot be happy 
unless you have earned the right to hap- 
piness by rectitude of life. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 9 

January Sixteenth. 

It takes but little to make the soul 
contented if we do not try to make our 
avarice and our envy contented also. 

January Seventeenth. 

If we are made in the image of God, 
and if He did breathe into us the breath 
of His own life, then we should not only 
feel chagrin at the little we have accom- 
plished, but be encouraged to begin 
another day's work with the hope of 
better results. 

January Eighteenth. 

Not alone, never alone, but always in 
the companionship of ministering spirits, 
enjoined by the Father to do us good 
service if we will allow them to do so. 



IO THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

January Nineteenth. 

We wonder why God does not arrange 
matters differently, and at the same time 
the angels are wondering why we do not 
see things differently. 

January Twentieth. 

A large part of our discontent comes 
from not having what we ourselves think 
we ought to have, but what Providence 
evidently regards as unnecessary to our 
development. 

January Twenty -first. 

The noblest souls that walk the earth 
have suffered. Greatness cannot be at- 
tained without trial and struggle, any 
more than wheat will grow in an un- 
plowed field. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. II 



January Twenty-second. 

You can grumble until even good luck 
turns to bad, or you can be so good- 
natured that even bad luck will turn to 
good. 



January Twenty -third. 

To spread a rumor of evil concerning 
any one, and especially concerning any 
woman, is to do an act at which the 
angels weep and on which the very 
heavens frown. 



January Twenty -fourth. 

Your relations to God are not to be 
shaken by the fact that you do not under- 
stand His providence. On the contrary, 
when the path is rugged and the night 



12 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

is dark — and very dark indeed it is some- 
times — cling all the closer to your faith, 
for it is the only thing under the stars 
that can give you help. 



January Twenty -fifth. 

Be sure that the Almighty made no 
mistake when He declared that no one 
can be contented with his back to the 
right and his face to the wrong. 



January Twenty-sixth. 

He never sent a cloud that had not a 
silver lining, and in His all-including 
providence no event can occur which has 
not attached to it some measure of hope 
and cheer. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 3 

January Twenty-seventh. 

There never yet was an environment 
so perfect that a man could not find fault 
with it if he had a bitter soul, nor an en- 
vironment so full of hardship that a man 
could not find some comfort in it if he 
was willing to look and knew where to 
look. 

January Twenty -eighth. 

As much as lies in your power — and it 
is a quality of character which admits of 
great development — live in to-day. Cul- 
tivate a quiet and peaceful frame of mind. 
He did it and was undisturbed by threat- 
ening circumstance, and you may follow 
afar off. 

January Twenty-ninth. 

Religion is not a sentimental mystery, 
which glosses over your wicked life when 



14 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

you know perfectly well that it ought not 
to be glossed over. On the other hand, 
it is the warning voice of a Father, who 
tells you that you must sow corn if you 
would reap corn, and that if you do not 
sow corn you will have no corn to eat. 



January ihirtieth. 

Selfishness is the cause of nine-tenths 
of the misery in the world and of nine- 
tenths of the other tenth. 



January Thirty -first. 

Shut yourself aw r ay from the world for 
a while, think seriously of the soul and 
its needs, uncover yourself to yourself, 
find out who and what you are and who 
and what you are to be in the future. 



FEBRUARY. 

In this I am wise that I follow nature, that best 
guide, and am obedient to her. 

Cicero. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. XJ 



February First. 

Worry is useless. It produces no 
good result. On the contrary, it is 
utterly destructive in its nature. So far 
from preparing you to overcome disaster, 
it renders you unfit to meet it. It de- 
bilitates the soul and robs you of the very 
strength which you pray for. 



February Second. 

Evil habits need no cultivation. They 
are moral weeds which flourish with 
very little sunshine, and multiply with 
surprising rapidity. 



February Third. 

Selfishness is a despicable and demor- 
alizing form of depravity. It is the 



1 8 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

cracked tire of the wheel of progress, 
the broken shaft in the engine of 
moral improvement, a kind of spiritual 
earthquake, which turns everything 
topsy-turvy, and makes harmony, 
brotherliness, and true religion utterly 
impossible. 



February Fourth. 

No man has ever suffered more than 
He did, and none has been pricked by 
as many thorns. And yet He calmly 
tells us to possess our souls in peace, 
not to anticipate the future, neither to 
worry about w r hat may happen to- 
morrow; but to bear as best we may 
whatever burden is on our shoulders 
and let the morrow take care of it- 
self. 



THE HEPIVORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 9 



February Fifth. 

If you wish to go to heaven in the 
hereafter, you must put a bit of heaven 
into some forlorn life here. 



February Sixth. 

The immortal life makes this life en- 
durable. If a man has no future he has 
no present. To-morrow's sun shining 
on to-day makes the path easy to climb. 
If we are never to wake when we sleep, 
it is a pity we are here at all. 



February Seventh. 

It is safe to conclude that, after all, 
this is God's world. For that reason the 
tide of righteousness should be on the 
flood, while the tide of vice should be on 



20 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

the ebb, and a little observation will 
show that this is true. 



February Eighth. 

It is possible to make this lower home 
like unto that above — so like it that 
nothing will seem strange when we 
reach the farther shore. 



February Ninth. 

Those who have gone await our com- 
ing. Our own lesson is not yet learned, 
but theirs is; and from their higher van- 
tage-ground they watch over us and 
guard us in ways we cannot fathom. 

February Tenth. 

Your reputation is what men suppose 
you to be; your character is what you 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 21 

are; and to possess those hardy, rugged 
elements of endurance and virtue which 
mark God's noblemen is to be fitted for 
earth and to be ready for heaven. 

February Eleventh, 

" The backbone of your religion," 
said Hiram, " isn't your subscribin' to 
certain propersitions about Christ, but 
your willin'ness to foller Him." 

February Twelfth, 

If you had impregnable uprightness 
of character, if nefarious methods were 
abhorrent to you, there would be no 
attractiveness in vicious deeds, and they 
would have no more alluring power than 
the fire has, which may coax you to 
thrust your hand into it, but which 
coaxes in vain. 



22 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



February Thirteenth. 

There are two prime duties — to believe 
in God as the best friend you can have, 
who will help you to achieve the best of 
which you are capable, and to believe in 
yourself as able, with that help, to fash- 
ion a godlike character out of the vary- 
ing fortune which falls to our human 
lot. 

February Fourteenth, 

The man who is worthy of our praise 
is he who takes any fortune and ham- 
mers it into shape; he does not ask for 
good luck, but for the strength to make 
good luck out of bad. 



February Fifteenth. 

Human life may be reverently com- 
pared to an opera. God is the author of 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 23 

the music, and He gives each person the 
part he is to take. Religion is simply 
the drill-master, who enjoins upon us the 
necessity of strictly following the score, 
and insists that we cannot make changes 
in it without injuring the unity of the 
production. 



February Sixteenth. 

The discipline of life is the best that 
Omniscience could devise to make the 
soul all He intended it to be. 



February Seventeenth, 

Money does not always enlarge a man; 
on the contrary, it frequently belittles 
him. It has more than once happened 
that as a man grew rich he grew smalt 



24 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 



February Eighteenth. 

The soul is too important to die, and 
the body is too unimportant to exist for 
more than a few decades. 



February Nineteenth. 

There is no satisfaction so nearly 
divine as that which comes when God's 
angels knock at your door and thank 
you for saving one who but for your 
efforts would have gone far astray. 



February Twentieth. 

Your character is really yourself, and 
if you don't like yourself, you will be 
compelled, either in this or in some 
other world, to take the whole thing 
down, even to the foundation-stones, 
and build all over again. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 25 



February Twenty-first. 

Let it not be said in that future when 
we shall see face to face, that you pressed 
any soul back by an ungenerous utter- 
ance; for words are things, are piercing 
swords, are blizzards that tear trees up 
by the roots, are lightning-bolts that 
strike sometimes to kill. 



February Twenty -second. 

One of the highest virtues the heart 
can cherish is the virtue of a dull ear 
when slander croaks. 



February Twenty -third. 

Much of the sorrow which burdens 
the heart is the result of our own mis- 
doing rather than of God's doing. 



26 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



February Twenty -fourth. 

Love, faith, peace — these are golden 
keys which hang at the girdle when man 
is his best self; they unlock the mysteries 
of the present and draw the bolt in the 
door of the future. 



February Twenty -fifth. 

The man who wants everything is apt 
to end by being in want of everything; 
while he who gives freely is apt to grow 
richer in heart, though he grows poorer 
in purse. 



February Twenty -sixth. 

A great many people are under the 
impression that they can wipe out the 
bad which they have done defiantly by 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 2 J 

doing something good as an irksome 
duty. The laws of the universe, how- 
ever, will have to be considerably 
changed before that will become pos- 
sible. 

February Twenty-seventh. 

We often drop a tear on a grave, 
whereas if we could see things as they 
are we should whisper our congratula- 
tions to the air in the hope that the dear 
one might hear them. 



February Twenty-eighth. 

If you build a house and don't like it, 
you can get rid of it, though perhaps at 
a loss; but if you build a character and 
don't like it, you will find yourself in 
very serious trouble. 



28 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



February Twenty -ninth. 

The idea of immortality, therefore, 
originates in the very necessity of the 
case, and we rightly argue that if God 
is just He will give us hereafter the 
opportunity which not even He can 
furnish us within the narrow limits of 
earthly life. 



MARCH. 

And her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through 
the ehznks of her sickness-broken body. 

Thomas Fuller. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 3 1 



March First. 

Suppose the church should say, " We 
are too busy to talk about theology; we 
will do that when we have eternity be- 
fore us; for the present we must get out 
the life-boats and save the tempest-tossed 
and shipwrecked;" what then? What 
then? Why, for the first time we should 
understand Christianity. 



March Second. 

You may not have company in your 
Gethsemane, unless it be the companion- 
ship of the angels and of Him who sends 
them. 

March Third. 

The basis of all true reform lies in the 
fact that body and soul not only reflect 



32 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

each other's moods, but that in the ideal 
man, the Christ man, the soul is undis- 
puted master of the body. 



March Fourth. 

I know not where heaven is and 
scarcely care to inquire; but it is some- 
where, and the thought is to the heart 
of a man what the falling rain is to the 
parched fields. 



March Fifth. 

The heart is the man. It is like the 
spring, in which the river has its source. 
Unless the spring is kept pure, the river 
will be turbid to its very mouth; and 
unless the heart is kept pure, there can 
be no home, no health, no happiness. 



i 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. $?> 



March Sixth, 

The seolian harp makes exquisite 
music when the breezes sweep over its 
strings, but the human heart makes far 
better music when willing hands have 
busied themselves to uplift a fallen 
brother. 



March Seventh. 

Spend thirty minutes every day in the 
silence of your own chamber, talking to 
your soul about the great concerns of 
life, and it will not be long before you 
have God to keep you company. 



March Eighth. 

Moreover, there is no perfect character 
without religious faith, because faith is 
3 



34 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

the mother of incentive. If one is to fall 
asleep to-morrow and wake nevermore, 
it makes little difference what he does 
to-day; but if he is to live forever, and 
what he does to-day will result in good 
or ill to-morrow, he has a motive for 
self-control which, like the steam in the 
boiler, sets the whole machinery a-going 
and keeps it a-going. 



March Ninth. 

Another body, another life, another 
environment ! That is what the soul has 
prophesied for itself as a consequence of 
God's goodness and wisdom. And then 
comes ringing through the ages the 
Voice which checks our tears at separa- 
tion and transmutes them into the hope 
of reunion, saying, " I go to prepare a 
place for you." 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 35 



March Tenth. 

There is contagion in goodness, pro- 
vided you are in a condition to receive it. 
It is said that the pregnant wives of the 
Athenians used to spend hours gazing at 
some beautiful statue, in the belief that 
something of its beauty would be trans- 
ferred to the child that was coming into 
the world. Beauty was contagious, and 
the little one, slumbering amid the mys- 
teries of a new life, caught it. 



March Eleventh. 

When God has given you something, 
do not take what man gives you in its 
stead. Your creed is well enough if you 
leave it on the shelf, but you must keep 
the Sermon on the Mount within reach 
for constant use. 



$6 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



March Twelfth. 

" If God is simply exhibitin' His 
power when He hits you," said Hiram, 
" I don't think I should praise Him very 
much; but if He hurts in order to help, 
you may feel the pain of the hurt, but 
you needn't blame Him for doin' it." 



March Thirteenth. 

God never bestows a greater blessing 
than when He gives one an environment 
which puts him on his mettle and makes 
it impossible for him to have what he 
wants until he has earned it. 



March Fourteenth. 

Religion is the apple on the tree. 
What is called " getting religion " is 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 37 

nothing more than eating the apple and 
by that means convincing yourself of its 
value, 

March Fifteenth. 

Our friends think us better than we 
are, and our enemies think us worse than 
we are. The first exaggerate our vir- 
tues, the latter our vices. The truth 
lies between these two estimates. 



March Sixteenth. 

The captain who has no polar star to 
guide him will sooner or later drive his 
vessel on the rocks, for ignorance never 
yet supplied the place of wisdom; and 
the man who has no ideal will never be- 
come his noblest self, because he does 
not know what that noblest self is. 



38 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 



March Seventeenth. 

Faith in each other is the central idea 
of home, and it is as impossible to have 
a home where that idea does not prevail 
as it is to make a cheerful blaze from wet 
and soggy wood. 



March Eighteenth. 

Out of hardness and stern necessity, 
out of pain and suffering, out of frequent 
disappointment, comes the best thing 
the human mind can aspire to — a perfect 
character. 



March Nineteenth. 

If messengers from on high could visit 
Abraham and make their presence 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 39 

known to Elisha, there is no reason to 
suppose that they are unwilling to come 
to our assistance. 



March Twentieth. 

It isn't the size of the field we till, but 
the work we put into it, that is impor- 
tant. A large soul makes everything 
large. 



March Twenty-first. 

" Yes, indeed I'm rich," said Hiram. 
" Look at the sky up there! Ain't that 
mine? Don't I have the use of it while 
I live? 

" No, I don't exactly own it, but then 
my Father owns it, and what my Father 
owns I have a right to enjoy." 



40 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



March Twenty-second. 

When a man comes to see what this 
life is for, and how the Almighty has so 
arranged events that he can weave them 
into a wedding-garment to wear in 
heaven, then he has the religion which 
Christ preached, and his gratitude is 
as irrepressible as the waters that bubble 
from the spring on the mountain-side. 



March Twenty -third. 

It is better to feed the soul than the 
body, for we can get along without the 
body, but not without the soul. 



March Twenty -fourth. 

You may have countless dollars and 
still be a beggar; but if you have ideas, 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 41 

and moral principles, and rectitude of 
character, and eyes that seek and find 
the beauty which God has scattered 
everywhere, you are rich and your life 
is worth something to yourself and to 
others. 

March Twenty -fifth. 

The true prayer is a quiet talk with 
the Almighty behind closed doors. 



March Twenty-sixth. 

The noblest man that lives can do no 
more than furnish a suggestion of the 
soul's aspiring possibilities before he is 
called hence by the tolling of funeral 
bells. He leaves his task only half done, 
his song only half sung, when the rev- 
erend clergy pronounce the solemn 
words, " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." 



42 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



March Tw en ty- seven th . 

Man's creed is apt to be a long one; 
God's creed is very short. Short as it is, 
however, you will have no time to spare 
if you shape your years according to its 
requirements. 



March Twenty -eighth. 

The probabilities are that while we 
know enough to obey God, we do not 
know enough to tell Him how the uni- 
verse ought to be run. Religion there- 
fore consists largely in making ourselves 
little and making God great. 



March Twenty -ninth, 

God's denials are the best part of His 
providence. He gives nothing without 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 43 

its price, and that price is toil. We find 
fault at first, but later on discover that 
what is worth having is worth working 
for; that work gives dignity to the soul 
and is the equivalent of education. 



March Thirtieth. 

The good father lives in the life of the 
boy long after that father has crossed 
the threshold of a cemetery, and the 
good mother still speaks to the daughter 
when that daughter has children of her 
own. 



March Thirty-first. 

She had often reminded Tom that life 
is nothing but a vale of tears, that he 
went altogether too frequently to the 



44 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

corner saloon to drown his grief over 
the fact. He had long ago begun to feel 
that religion and personal discomfort are 
as closely allied as cause and effect. 



APRIL. 

Think naught a trifle, though it small appear ; 
Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, 
And trifles life. 

Young. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 47 



April First, 

What this old world needs is sterling 
and unwavering moral principle, and the 
independence to stand by it. These 
grand qualities of character must be 
taught in the home by parents who be- 
lieve in them and exemplify them in 
their own lives, or they will never be 
acquired at all 



April Second. 

That God chastens because He loves 
is a hard saying, but they who have been 
chastened can ofttimes find in their 
agony a treasure which happiness is too 
blind to discover. 



48 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



April Third. 

Human sympathy is always valuable 
and uplifting; but there are experiences 
through which you must pass with none 
save the Lord for company. 



April Fourth. 

Think of living from day to day un- 
disturbed by the world's envyings and 
heartburnings, standing on so high a 
level of thought and purpose that heaven 
itself opens its doors every now and 
again, that we may catch a glimpse of 
what awaits us. That is what God would 
have us do, that is what the Christ actu- 
ally did, and that is what the ideal man 
can do and will do. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 49 

April Fifth. 

" My kind of religion," said Hiram, 
11 don't scuttle out of sight at sundown 
on Sunday evenin', come back again for 
an hour or two to the Wednesday prayer- 
meetin', and then disappear until the 
church-bells ring on the next Sunday 
mornin\ All that is a delusion and a 
snare." 

April Sixth. 

If one does not feel that the practice 
of religion brings its own reward here 
and now without reference to the future, 
then he misinterprets the purpose of God 
and all his wine is turned to water. 

April Seventh. 

Soul and body live together for a time. 
When the soul goes, that is the end of 
4 



50 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

the body; when the body goes, that is 
not the end of the soul. The house may 
be pulled down, but the man who lived 
in it may go forth and seek another 
home for himself. 



April Eighth. 

It is right and proper to pray, " Give 
us this day our daily bread ;" but God 
asks a price for His answer, and that 
price is that you shall give some one 
else a share of the bread He gives to you. 



April Ninth. 

The worth of religion as a practical 
factor is beyond the reach of computa- 
tion, and in so far as you succeed in 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 5 1 

making it practical you render yourself 
satisfactory to yourself and to the world. 



April Tenth. 

Patient work with a holy aspiration 
behind it, these are the materials out of 
which saints and heroes are made. The 
man who whimpers and complains of ill 
luck comes to naught. 



April Eleventh. 

There are broken lives that might 
have been beautified, stormy lives that 
might have been filled with sunshine, 
desperate lives that might have been 
saintly, lives whose misery no plummet 
can sound. They are scattered every- 
where, and they are the consequence of 



52 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

ambition and selfishness in making the 
solemn compact of marriage. 



April Twelfth. 

So far from being a curse, the neces- 
sity for daily toil is one of the choicest 
blessings. Without it, the world would 
wreck itself in a generation. 



April Thirteenth. 

That it may be possible to overcome 
disease by a thought instead of a drug, 
and that love of God and confidence in 
Him have much to do with keeping us 
whole, or, to use the old English equiv- 
alent, hale (as in the phrase " hale and 
hearty"), is one of the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity which has been persistently ig- 
nored. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 53 



April Fourteenth. 

When a man gives cheer to another's 
heart the angels mysteriously put cheer 
into his own. 



April Fifteenth. 

If he ruins our hopes, or gives our 
love a wrench, or sends the dread Mes- 
senger to our household, the sad song we 
sing brings the angels nearer, and from 
the ashes of consumed desires springs a 
faith which draws the curtain aside and 
shows us a better life. 



April Sixteenth. 

The end to be sought is largeness of 
soul, and this — so strangely are we made 



54 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

— is to be attained, not by having our 
own way, but by giving up our way and 
adopting God's way. 



April Seventeenth. 

The angels stoop to earth with smiling 
faces whenever a man sacrifices his own 
comfort in order to encourage some dis- 
heartened soul. 



April Eighteenth. 

The divine in humanity is developed 
by faith rather than by intellectual at- 
tainment. The most important part of 
a man is his soul, and if that stands 
plumb nothing can go crooked. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 55 

April Nineteenth. 

To be forever discontented with what 
you have is to lessen, or possibly to lose, 
the power to make the best of it. 



April Twentieth. 

What we need, then, is to get back to 
a full consciousness that God and we are 
closely related to each other. Therein 
lies the secret of religion. Call it the 
new birth or what you will, it is nothing 
more nor less than clearing away the 
underbrush and worldly rubbish and 
giving the sun a chance to shine on our 
roots. 

April Twenty-first. 

There is no other foundation for a true 
home than the union of two souls by the 



56 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

bonds of holy affection. Other experi- 
ments have been tried, but no substitute 
for that affection has yet been found, 
nor is it likely that it will be. 



April Twenty-second. 

" Parson," began Hiram, " there is too 
many Christians who are anxious to do 
somethin' great for God, and too few 
who are willin' to do somethin' little. ,, 



April Twenty-third. 

The world consists of little people, 
each of whom is doing his little work; 
but the aggregate influence is an irre- 
sistible dynamic force for good. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 57 



April Twenty -fourth. 

To-day we visit our graves, but to- 
morrow we shall go to heaven and there 
discover our dear ones. We can be 
quiet, for though life is hard the reunion 
will give us back all whom we have lost. 



April Twenty -fifth. 

Our real wants are very, few, though 
we are apt to think them very many. 
We can be happy — this is true of at least 
nine-tenths of the world — with what we 
have if we know how to make the most 
of it and the best of it. 



April Twenty -sixth. 

Build your character just as you 
would build a home. Solid masonry 



58 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

and sound timber! God and Christ and 
the angels will then come and take up 
their abode with you, and when you step 
out of the earthly tabernacle you will 
be welcomed by the glorious company 
above. 



April Twenty-seventh. 

Diseases are largely the consequence 
of conditions of mind, and when the 
mistakes of the mind are rectified the 
ailments of the body will be cured. 



April Twenty -eighth. 

If you plant thistles in the spring you 
cannot hope to gather corn in October. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 59 



April Twenty-ninth, 

You have a thousand struggles. Well, 
thank God for that. Struggle changes 
one from wet clay to marble. Face your 
fate bravely, and even fate will surrender. 



April Thirtieth. 

A family with a dog-eared Bible makes 
earnest church-members. God's bless- 
ing rests on the book when it is thumb- 
marked; and if its sacred passages are 
blotted with tears, all the richer the 
blessing. Bibles with the gilding perfect 
are an accusation. They represent the 
secrets of God under lock and key, where 
no eye can see them and no heart get at 
them. 



MAY. 

Unblemished let me live, or die unknown ; 
grant an honest fame, or grant me none ! 

Pope. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 63 



May First. 

The inexorable law is that your own 
way shall prove itself the worst way, and 
that God's way, which is sometimes 
plentifully sprinkled with disappoint- 
ments, is after all and in the long run 
the best way. 



May Second. 

When we begin to count the things 
we ought to have we begin to be miser- 
able, but when we begin to be thankful 
for the things we really possess we begin 
to be happy. 



May Third. 

To assert that you can insult His laws 
during a whole lifetime, and then, when 



64 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 

you have no more time or opportunity 
to continue the insult, can suddenly be- 
come a good man, fitted to enjoy the 
glories of heaven, is repugnant to our 
knowledge of the way in which the laws 
of the universe act in every-day life. 



May Fourth. 

Everybody has doubts, just as every 
ladder has rungs. As the rungs suggest 
climbing and at the same time furnish 
the opportunity of doing so, so doubts 
suggest the possibility of reaching the 
grandest truths and are frequently the 
means by which we attain them. 



May Fifth. 

You cannot wrap your mantle of self- 
righteousness about you and pursue the 



THE HEFWORTH YEAR BOOK. 65 

policy of saving yourself and letting 
others take their chances. The Father- 
hood of God repudiates that kind of 
religion, and the brotherhood of man 
grows pale at thought of it. 



May Sixth. 

Two homes we have: one here, with 
its mingled joy and sorrow; the other 
there, beyond the stars. 



May Seventh. 

Why we were born in this lower level, 
and must fall on sleep before we can 
reach the higher level, I do not know. 
It is a mystery and will always remain 
such. But of this I am sure: that for 

5 



66 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

some good reason the providence of God 
has decreed that a certain amount of 
experience and discipline and education 
is necessary before we can be prepared 
for the better things to come. 



May Eighth. 

How brief is the span of human life! 
Our days and months and years go by 
so noiselessly that we scarcely note the 
footfalls of their coming or their going. 



May Ninth. 

It may be unpleasant to live in a side- 
street, but a side-street with peace is bet- 
ter than the avenue with misery. Your 
acquaintances may shrug their shoulders 
— it is their privilege to do so if they 



THE HEPIVORTH YEAR BOOK. 6 J 

choose — but if the home is bright and 
cheerful, what care you? 

May Tenth. 

" There is churches enough," said 
Hiram, " to suit everybody's peculiari- 
ties, and he should be free to do as he 
pleases about that. I would say, ' Jine 
some church, any church, and I shall be 
satisfied. Jine anywhere, only jine, and 
add your individooal strength to the 
strength of others/ " 



May Eleventh. 

Of two lovers a good poor man is 
better than a bad rich man. Pictures 
and furniture and rugs and footmen are 
desirable in their way, but you cannot 
afford to give a human heart for them. 



68 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



May Twelfth. 

Lose yourself and you will find your- 
self. Love yourself last and the stars 
will shine with a brighter beam. 



May Thirteenth. 

We seek for the ideal life, and men do 
not furnish it, but women do. Humili- 
ating as the confession is, it is true that 
the average woman is purer than the 
average man. The change that is 
needed, therefore, is a change of stand- 
ard. We must abolish the standard 
which men have set for themselves and 
substitute the standard which men have 
set for women. Not less purity for 
women should be the rule, but more 
purity for men. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 69 



May Fourteenth, 

If the clergy will forget everything 
else and remember only this one thing — 
that men are hard pushed and need help 
and comfort and good cheer — then 
creeds will be whistled down the wind, 
sectarianism will be banished, and the 
world be all the better for it. 



May Fifteenth. 

The difference to a man's soul, to his 
temper, to his general disposition, and, 
not least of all, to his bodily health, be- 
tween the conviction that he can do 
great things with what he has, and the 
conviction that he can do nothing be- 
cause he has not what he thinks he ought 
to have, is practically the difference 
between a life sweetened bv faith and 



70 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

effort, and a life embittered by an 
estrangement between himself and the 
very nature of things. 



May Sixteenth. 

If religion is good for anything it is 
good for everything, and no man is at 
his best until spiritual truth is just as 
practical and practicable as any principle 
of physics. 

May Seventeenth. 

" That's what I call religion," said 
Hiram. " I've got only a taste of it on 
the tip of my tongue; but what will it be 
when I drink it as the thirsty traveler 
drinks from the bucket at the well? I 
only see a corner of the battlements; 
but how shall I feel when I ' hold them 
in full survey ' ? " 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 7 1 



May Eighteenth. 

Make money, but do not worship it. 
Pay a good price for it, but not more 
than it is worth. Honest dollars hurt no 
one, but dishonest gains are a consum- 
ing fire. 

May Nineteenth. 

" Yes, parson," said Hiram, " there's 
nothin' half so easy as dyin' when by 
dyin' you reach the home where there 
ain't no more tears and no more night." 



May Twentieth. 

The world's universal crime is selfish- 
ness. We have educated it until it has 
become a mania. It controls our 
thoughts, our plans, our actions. Events 
are simply sponges from which we 



72 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

squeeze some benefit for ourselves, and 
we carry this so far that the rights of 
others are utterly ignored and self-grati- 
fication becomes the only god who 
claims our hearty worship. 



May Twenty-first. 

When we exchange our plan for His 
plan, it will be like dropping a pebble 
to pick up a diamond — like laying aside 
our untuned harps to listen to the music 
of the angel choir. 



May Twenty-second. 

The sorrowing ones of earth are spe- 
cially near to the Father, and struggling 
souls are objects of His special solici- 
tude. It is hard for us to see His face 
at such times, for our tears are like 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 73 

clouds that hide the sun; but as the sun 
is surely behind the clouds, so is His face 
behind our tears. 



May Twenty -third. 

When a man's religion doesn't make 
him cheerful, he's got hold of the wrong 
bottle. He'd better break it, and get 
another one. 



May Twe?ity -fourth. 

Jesus declared, that the mind is the 
imperator, and that even our physical 
functions, our health as well as the meas- 
ure of happiness we enjoy, depend very 
largely on what we believe or do not 
believe; in other words, that a man is 
what his mind makes him rather than 
what his body makes him. 



74 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



May Twenty -fifth. 

If you are the worst sinner in the 
world; if there is no spot on the broad 
earth where you can find a resting-place 
— still, as truly as the stars shine above 
you at night and the sun by day, so 
truly does God Almighty pity you with a 
pity that is fathomless and boundless, 
and so truly do the angels band together 
to draw you back into the paths of per- 
sonal purity and rectitude. 



May Twenty -sixth. 

As the light of a distant star floods the 
earth long after the star itself has been 
extinguished, so the uprightness and 
integrity of the merchant exert untold 
influence long after a sorrowing people 
have laid him in his resting-place. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 75 

May Twenty-seventh. 

The lonely heart that has been chilled 
by frosty misfortune, and falls upon a 
desperate mood, is surrounded by invisi- 
ble agents, who are doing all that heaven 
itself can suggest to make the way 
smoother and the sky brighter. 

May Twenty -eighth. 

God's providence is both wide and 
tender, and the more you trust in it, the 
sweeter will be your life, the brighter will 
be your hope, the fairer will be your gen- 
eral outlook, and the nearer will heaven 
seem to you. 

May Twenty-ninth. 

Faith is the food that furnishes 
strength; doubt is the chronic indiges- 
tion that makes us weak and despondent. 



76 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 



May Thirtieth. 

They who have gone have more 
friends on the other side than they 
could have here, for this life is made up 
of many streams, but the other life is the 
ocean into which all streams flow. 



May Thirty -first. 

If you hope to attain eminence in any. 
profession and to reap profit from it you 
must make yourself familiar with the 
fundamental principles of that profes- 
sion. For a precisely similar reason and 
with precisely the same end in view, you 
must know what you want to do and 
how it can be most easily done when you 
stand on the threshold of your career 
and look forward with hope. You want 
religion, but it must be a religion of 
common sense. 






JUNE. 

I piiy the man who can travel from Dan to Beer~ 
sheba, and cry, " ' Tis aU barren" 

Laurence Sterne. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 79 



June First. 

If the laws of nature were triumphant, 
if our ancestors had not left their dis- 
eases as well as their property to us as 
heirs, we might be hale and strong until 
the machinery gave way. That is the 
kind of life and death indicated by the 
plan of God, but that plan has been sadly 
interfered with. 



June Second. 

The one thing to be guarded most 
carefully is the tongue. Deceitful 
tongues have done more harm than all 
the wars that were ever waged. 



June Third. 

It is curious to note our dependence 
on one another and how impossible it is 



80 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

to be sufficient unto ourselves. The 
world may get on very well without us, 
but not for a day can we get on without 
the world. 

Ju?ie Fourth. 

The business man preaches the gos- 
pel of rectitude more effectively than 
the clergy can do it. A noble deed is 
better than a noble word. The word 
may incite to the deed, but when we 
get to heaven the merchant who has 
led a pure life will occupy as high a 
place as the minister who told him 
how to do it. 



June Fifth. 

Do and say all you can to cheer, for 
God only knows the secrets of our lives, 
how much we need to hear such words, 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 8 1 

and how much influence they may exert. 
But never, never, never, under any prov- 
ocation, allow yourself to strengthen a 
rumor of scandal. 



June Sixth. 

" I think to myself," said Hiram, 
" How good God must be to care for 
that ragged and unwashed soul! What 
a blessed thing it is that He asks me to 
jine in with Him in the work, and do 
what I can to lift that man out of the 
mire! God and me in partnership for 
the redemption of mankind! Why, sech 
a thought is a revelation ! " 



June Seventh. 

True religion, the religion which holds 
this life in one hand and immortality in 



82 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

the other, is the best fortune that ever 
fell to the lot of mortal man. 



June Eighth, 

You have griefs and bereavements? 
Then you have passed through the vesti- 
bule and are in the Temple itself. God 
has thought you worthy of serious work, 
and has asked you to do it. 



June Ninth. 

If souls are crying out for help and 
you sit idly by, there is no heaven for 
you either to-day or to-morrow. 



June Tenth. 

Quiet, restful contemplation is more 
magical than magic itself. It is utterly 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 83 

impossible for a man to think about him- 
self for half an hour without becoming 
ashamed of himself, and shame after a 
little will transmute itself into resolution. 



June Eleventh. 

The noblest man is he who has not 
yet done all he expects to do, and whose 
soul is lighted up with anticipation of 
better things to come. 



June Twelfth. 

There are two crimes which stand side 
by side — to speak evil of your neighbor, 
and to listen to it. The listening ear and 
the slanderous tongue are the two 
organs of the human body upon which 
the devil chiefly depends for the accom- 
plishment of his purposes. 



84 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 



June Thirteenth. 

Death makes no change in affection or 
character. To-morrow we shall be our- 
selves just as we are to-day, and there 
can never come a time when we shall 
suffer loss of personal identity. 



June Fourteenth. 

Men long to hear of heaven, and will 
listen with patient ears to the proofs of 
immortality; but they have no interest in 
the competition and rivalry of sects, or 
in the dogmatic and doctrinal side of 
religion. 

June Fifteenth. 

When religion has done its perfect 
work in us, it will be but one step from 



THE HEPV/ORTH YEAR BOOK. 85 

the home on earth to the home in 
heaven. 

yune Sixteenth. 

Suppose you could put a genuine love 
into the hearts of all men. I am sure 
that the gates of the New Jerusalem 
would swing on their hinges to let the 
angels out on a visit to the loved ones 
here below. 



June Seventeenth. 

A purely selfish man, who wants 
everything and gives nothing, lives in 
the suburbs of purgatory and will not 
have far to go when he dies. 



June Eighteenth. 

Even when it seems as though He had 
deserted and left us to our fate, the rus- 



86 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

tling of angel wings may be heard, and 
the prayer of beseeching faith brings a 
calm into the soul as though He had 
whispered, " Peace, be still." 

June Nineteenth, 

" But if I do it with the feelin' that 
God is sayin' to me, ' Hiram, I have sot 
you to makin' shoes, and I want you to 
make 'em good; don't put no paper in 
the soles, for the sake of a little extra 
profit; and see that your uppers is well 
tanned; do that, and I'll see that you get 
to heaven ' — if I work with that in 
mind, ain't I a pretty good-sized man in 
the sight of the anjels?" 

June Twentieth, 

If a young man is equipped with the 
right ideas, the chances are in favor of 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 8 J 

his being of some value to the world; but 
if when he stands on the threshold of life 
he has no controlling moral principle, 
he is like a chip on the surface of a 
freshet. 

June Twenty -fir st. 

As the servant of a noble man, money 
is exceedingly valuable, for it furnishes 
opportunities to enlarge the scope of 
charity and benevolence. As the master 
of a niggardly man it develops the 
meaner qualities of human nature and 
makes its possessor a mere caricature. 



June Twenty-second. 

If a man has any religion at all, do 
not ask him what kind it is and sneer at 
him because it is not your kind; but be 
grateful because he and you are trying 



So THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

to get to the same place, though he 
takes one road and you another. 

June Twenty -third. 

It is not a man's duty to love God; it 
is his inalienable right and his inesti- 
mable privilege. 

June Twenty -fourth. 

It is a glorious fact that, though we 
find it sometimes difficult to rejoice in 
the good fortune of another, since 
shameful envy blocks the way, it seldom 
happens that we fail to be sorry for 
another's misfortune. 

June Twenty -fifth. 

If you have a serene and quiet trust in 
God, without whose notice no sparrow 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 89 

falls to the ground, the events of life 
will arrange themselves into a kind of 
symphony. 

June Twenty -sixth. 

There are some things which only 
God and we may know, and religion 
establishes such a relationship between 
us and Him that we can feel a friendly 
arm underneath us and hear with our 
hearts the voice of good cheer. 



June Twenty-seventh. 

A perfect poise, that altitude of faith 
from which the ideal man looks down on 
the perplexities of life in calm survey, 
and looks up to a God who from that 
point of vantage seems close at hand, 
may be difficult of attainment, but it is 
worth all the struggles it will cost. 



90 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



yune Twenty-eighth, 

Keep your soul pure, even if you are 
compelled to keep your body poor in 
order to do so. 



June Twenty-ninth. 

It is an easy thing to condemn a sin- 
ner, send him to prison, and so forget all 
about him. It is a very different thing 
to look on a sinner with pitying eye, and, 
while condemning what he has done, 
make him feel that you are his friend 
and will help him to recover himself. 



yune Thirtieth. 

Wealth has very little to do with hap- 
piness. Money gives nothing to the 
heart, can purchase neither a moral 
principle nor an aspiration. 



JULY. 

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand 
to execute. 

Edward Gibbon. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 93 



July First. 

What are you worth to-day? Not in 
money, but in brains, heart, purpose, 
character? Tell yourself the truth about 
yourself. 

July Second. 

" There ain't nothin' small that God 
condescends to look at," said Hiram. 
" His lookin' at it makes it great/' 



July Third. 

The preposterous statement that a 
woman is more guilty than a man for 
the same act is slowly slinking away 
from the criticisms of the age. It is a 
contemptible statement, which can be 



94 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

maintained by brute force, but not by 
fair argument. 



July Fourth. 

While it is possible for a boy with a 
mind full of mistaken ideas to throw 
them aside one after the other as he pro- 
ceeds on his journey, it is also true that 
he runs great risks and will probably end 
his career with an armful of regrets and 
a handful of real happiness. 



July Fifth. 

A great many prayers are not prayers 
at all. A great many winged words fly 
as high as the roof and then drop to the 
ground again. One can commit as grave 
an offense by praying insincerely as by 






THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 95 

not praying at all. A soul is neither 
saved nor helped by words without feel- 
ing, for such prayers are very close to 
mockery. 

July Sixth, 

In every age in which women are 
more or less subordinate, men are more 
or less brutal; and it is safe to predict 
that the highest type of manhood will 
never be attained except by association 
with the highest type of womanhood. 



July Seventh. 

Let your ambition run high, and seek 
its realization by hard work, but remem- 
ber that it is a man's soul and not his 
pocket-book which goes to heaven. 



gG THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



July Eighth. 

" In the last will and testament of my 
Saviour," said Hiram, " I'm made legal 
heir to the immortal life. That docki- 
ment is very vallible to me. ' In My 
Father's house/ He says, ' are many 
mansions. I go to prepare a place for 
you/ So IVe got a place here, and a 
place there; a house on the earth, and a 
home in heaven. This great gift is 
deeded to me, and guaranteed. The 
title to it can't be disputed in no court." 



July Ninth. 

The moment when warriors ceased to 
be heroes, woman began to take her 
rightful place. The instant brains began 
to be the motive power of society, 
woman proved her right to engage in 
the competition. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 97 



July Tenth, 

It is faith, after all, which produces all 
the magic in our lives, for it is just as 
necessary to our personal happiness to 
lift up our hands to heaven, in the belief 
that unseen beings will lead us through 
the falling night, as it is for a child to 
believe that its father will protect it in 
the coming storm. 



Jtdy Eleventh. 

The man who seeks for this world's 
goods exclusively, whose chief posses- 
sion is a bank-account, will find himself 
out of place in heaven — a stranger in a 
strange land. 
7 



98 THE HEPIVORTH YEAR BOOK. 



July Twelfth. 

The love of life, the sacredness of life, 
the right of every man to enjoy his life 
to its uttermost limit of time, is the basis 
of at least one of the Ten Command- 
ments. Eliminate this clinging and you 
would make it impossible for human 
nature to bear its burdens; for it would 
very quickly seek relief from them in the 
peace and silence of sleep. While we 
live, this life is more important than any 
other life. 



July Thirteenth. 

The Bible has been an encouragement 
to the oppressed, a warning to the 
wrong-doer, and a consolation to the 
bereaved; and as long as oppression is 
to be borne, as long as warnings are 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 99 

needed, as long as human nature needs 
to be consoled in its sorrows, so long 
will it occupy its place in the household 
as an indispensable volume. 



July Fourteenth. 

The man who makes the most of the 
little that he has is of more intrinsic 
worth than he who owns worlds, but is 
unhappy because he has not more 



July Fifteenth. 

If, like the prodigal, you thoughtfully 
come to the conclusion that your life is 
a mistake, and conclude to face the stars 
and walk that way, you can be absolutely 
sure that God has been sorry for you 
during every hour of dissipation, and 
will take you into the warm embrace of 



100 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

His sympathy and love when you feel 
the need of holier living. Men may turn 
from you, but God never. 

July Sixteenth. 

Calm, quiet, relentless self-examina- 
tion is the most irksome task which we 
ever set ourselves, and we gladly avail 
ourselves of every excuse to avoid it. 

July Seventeenth. 

Let your strivings, then, be after con- 
tentment. Get out of each passing day 
all the sweetness there is in it. Live in 
the present hour as much as possible, 
and if you live for character your foun- 
dations will overlast to-morrow. It is 
when men build without moral principle 
that they need fear the future. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 10 1 



July Eighteenth. 

If Christians more fully represented 
the simplicity of Christ, were more tol- 
erant of each other, gave a more gener- 
ous welcome to the poor instead of hold- 
ing themselves aloof, broke down the 
barriers of sectarianism, and vied with 
each other in the noble rivalry of good 
works, the church would be infinitely 
more efficient than it is. 



July Nineteenth. 

If you have love, you have fulfilled 
the law, and when the right time comes 
you will find your wedding-garments in 
readiness for you. The soul of religion 
is love, and theology is mere body — 
worthless material, which will count for 
nothing in the future. 



102 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



July Twentieth. 

If the rich man who spends his money 
on himself is deserving of censure, so 
also is the religious man who hopes to 
get to heaven whether other people get 
there or not. 



July Twenty -first. 

" Ain't religion sometimes like 
magic?" said Hiram. "It does the 
impossible, and it gives us the one 
thing we want more than anythin' else. 
There's so much to it that once in a 
while I'm afraid I'll wake up and find 
I've been dreamin'. And when I do 
wake up, it's bigger, and broader, and 
higher, and more glorious than ever." 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 103 



July Twenty-second, 

If you bring a smile to the trembling 
lips of another, you will soon discover 
that a smile is alighting on your own 
lips, like a butterfly on a flower. 



July Twenty -third. 

There never yet was a night without 
a star, and if you search for the star and 
do what you can to ignore the darkness, 
you will find more happiness than you 
ever dreamed of. 



July Twenty -fourth. 

It is not the smallness of your life, 
but the quality of it, that is important. 
You cannot be an oak or an elm, but 
if you are a violet under a maple, drink- 



104 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

ing m the sunshine and the dew, you 
should be content; for in the providence 
of God humble lives cheerfully lived 
have infinite value. 



July Twenty -fifth. 

When the fact of immortality is 
brought into radiant prominence all the 
motives which govern us in this life are 
changed by being ennobled. We are 
not to work with the grave in view, but 
with the knowledge that heaven is just 
below the horizon. 



July Twenty-sixth. 

If it teaches you to pray for yourself 
instead of working for others; if you are 
indifferent to the wrongs from which 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 05 

mankind suffer; if you have never spent 
your time and energy to reclaim some 
one who has strayed in forbidden paths, 
you may possibly have a religion that 
is better than nothing, but you have not 
the kind of religion which Christ came 
to reveal. 

July Twenty -seventh. 

You could have been counted as His 
follower in old Judea if you had simply 
believed that there is a heaven above 
you, and a place for you there if you 
will earn the right to it by loving your 
neighbor as yourself. A short creed 
indeed. 

July Twenty -eighth. 

Go your way with your own thoughts, 
but do not forget that your neighbor 



106 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



has the same right to go his way with 
his thoughts. 



July Twenty -ninth. 

"What a good-natured creature Death 
is, after all!" said Hiram. "I'm goin' 
on, and on, and on, and when him and 
me stand on the other shore, and he tells 
me to follow the shinin' Cross and I'll 
reach the City, Til say to him, ' Dear 
Death, you have done for me more than 
life ever did or could do. I want to 
apologize for some hard thoughts I've 
had about you/ " 



July Thirtieth. 

By the religion which He represented 
we are enjoined to judge the fallen with 
the consciousness that we too mav fall 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 107 

some day; to hate the sin, but love the 
sinner, and offer a helping hand. 



July Thirty -fir st. 

When a man says, " This is well 
enough for to-day, but to-morrow I shall 
have more and better/' he is in just the 
state of mind that makes the more and 
the better possible. But when one feels 
that his circumstances are not only a 
hardship, but also an injustice, he can 
neither get out of his present the best 
there is in it, nor look forward to the 
future with anything like good cheer. 



AUGUST. 

Whatever day 
Makes man a slave \ takes half his worth away. 

Pope. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. Ill 



August First. 

Religion, rightly understood, is the 
staff on which we lean as we climb 
toward the stars. 



August Second. 

The doctrine of Christ is the most un- 
compromising thing in the world; there 
is neither favoritism nor injustice in it! 
That is only another way of saying that 
if you have furnished your house with 
filth you need not hope that cleanliness 
will be satisfied to abide in it until it 
has been thoroughly put in order. 

August Third. 

Healthy bodies as well as noble souls 
will be the result when we accept the 
Christ in His fullness. 



112 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



August Fourth. 

It might not be fair to say that some 
people are so good that they are bad; 
but I venture the assertion that when a 
man thinks God made a mistake in creat- 
ing flowers and painting the sky blue 
instead of black, and then runs his life 
by that theory, he depresses the spiritual 
vitality in his vicinity. 



August Fifth. 

44 He is with me when it's dark and 
the stars are all shut out," said Hiram, 
44 and then, havin' allowed me to be in 
His company for fifty year, tells me 
He wants me to live with Him forever. 
After that, and with them facts starin' 
me in the face, do you ask me to love 
and trust Him from a sense of duty ? " 



THE HEP IVOR TH YEAR BOOK. 113 



August Sixth, 



Religion is not worth much if it 
encourages your discontent; for, after 
all, if you and the Lord keep together 
you will always be in good company 
and always have something to make you 
glad and cheerful. What is around you 
will be brightened by what is above you; 
and to-day, cloudy though it be, will be 
made radiant by the hopes that come 
from the great to-morrow. 



August Seventh. 

As the captain of a vessel cannot say 
that this or that is the right course until 
he casts his eye upon the heavens and 
notes the position of the polar star, so is 
a man powerless to reach the highest end 
until by careful study he learns what the 



114 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

highest end is and what means he has 
to reach it. 



August Eighth. 

When the creed is hidden behind the 
Sermon on the Mount then all goes well, 
for in looking at the sermon you forget 
the creed; but when the Sermon on the 
Mount is put behind the creed then 
things must needs go badly. When the 
setting of the gem is so constructed that 
the gem cannot be seen, you practically 
have no gem, but only a setting. 



August Ninth* 

The yearning of the soul brings all 
the hosts of heaven about you. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 115 



August Tenth, 

You are your brother's keeper, and 
you can do nothing better for yourself 
than doing something for others. 



August Eleventh. 

With a confidence in Him that never 
wavers, and a faith in the unseen agents 
whom He sends to your rescue, you not 
only need fear no danger, but you can 
also be peaceful and quiet in very trou- 
blous times. 



August Twelfth. 

If we knew what we are best adapted 
to do, and had an inventory of the 
mental and moral material in our pos- 
session to do it with, there would be 



Il6 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

fewer sighs and less heartbreaking. 
Therefore examine yourself. 

Angles t Thirtee?ith. 

The purpose of marriage is the build- 
ing of the home. If there is any other 
motive — wealth or social position — we 
perform an act of sacrilege, defy the laws 
of the universe, and reap a harvest of 
tears. 

August Fourteenth. 

Heaven reaching down and man 
reaching up — then come the union and 
the communion, which work miracles. 

August Fifteenth. 

The lightning has always been in the 
clouds, but until the race had reached 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK, 117 

a certain intellectual strength the discov- 
ery was impossible. You may state the 
principles of algebra to a child, but he 
does not apprehend them until he be- 
comes a man. In the Bible more is con- 
cealed than is revealed, but little by little, 
as we grow toward maturity, we open 
new windows and get new views. 

August Sixteenth, 

To worry is to endure an agony before 
its time and so prolong your misery. 
God says, " You must suffer pain to- 
morrow," and you reply, " Then I will 
suffer it to-day also." 

■ August Seventeenth. 

Slander is never backed by a good 
motive; it is only a base heart that can 
say base things. 



Il8 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 



August Eighteenth. 

Save some one, give some one a share 
of your plenty, pity the poor and op- 
pressed, let no day pass without a kindly 
word or a generous deed, and angels 
will come and visit you, for you will be 
doing God's work in God's way. 



August Nineteenth. 

It would be strange to declare that 
one part of us, the body, can come to its 
maturity, but the other part, the soul, 
never will, for it is plainly true that no 
human being has ever yet reached that 
point where there was nothing more or 
better that he could do or become. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 119 



August Twentieth. 

If you slight the house you are build- 
ing you will never have what you want, 
and if you slight your character you will 
never become what you hope to be. 
There are pretty stern laws underlying 
both structures, and it is better to take 
pains while building than to have pain 
after the work is completed. 



August Twenty-first. 

The hour is at hand when this severely 
practical age will make a new use of 
the Bible. The day of dogma has gone 
by and the day of high and holy living 
has begun to dawn. 



120 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



August Twenty -second. 

A good thought, according to the 
revelation of the Lord, is better than a 
powerful drug, to produce health. 



A ugust Twen ty - th ird. 

" If your sermon is good, and I make 
my shoes good, He'll say, ' John and 
Hiram, you've used your talent about 
equally well. Go up there and sit in the 
front bench side by side, and jine in 
the general Hallelujah.' " 



August Twenty -fourth. 

Let death come how it will, it cannot 
disturb us. If it comes suddenly, all the 
better, for we shall be saved the pain 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 12 1 

of lingering illness. It will be as God 
decrees; only let us be ready for the 
journey whenever we are summoned. 



August Twenty -fifth. 

Once know God as He is, once catch 
a glimpse of the real Christ, and we shall 
live within a stone's throw of heaven all 
the time. 



August Twenty-sixth, 

It is when the heart is not satisfied 
that the nature of the environment 
assumes undue importance. Two rooms 
will do, if nothing better can be had, 
when love would build a home; but a 
palace is too small when the heart is 
aching. 



122 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 



August Twenty -seventh. 

A few convictions hammered out of 
your own sense of dependence, and the 
consciousness of your daily need to be 
watched over and guided by the invisible 
beings who " walk the earth both when 
we wake and when we sleep," will serve 
you better than all the theology that was 
ever printed in books. 



August Twenty -eighth. 

Death does not care whether your 
body is clothed in fine linen or in rags. 
He has been sent for your soul, your 
naked soul, pure or impure, and that 
alone will he take with him. He strips 
your environment from you as you 
would throw aside a tattered garment. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. I 23 

The only thing he will allow you to carry 
— absolutely the only thing — is your 
character. 



August Twenty-ninth. 

There is nothing in all the world that 
draws us to heaven so gently and yet 
so irresistibly as the sense of helpless- 
ness. Make life a round of pleasure, 
and the Lord's Prayer would never be 
uttered. But the smitten soul seeks 
shelter, as the frightened child rushes 
into its mother's arms. 



August Thirtieth. 

No soul will be saved in the future 
world which has not tried to save some 
other soul besides itself in this world. 



124 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



August Thirty-first. 

Strip the millions from one man, take 
away the poverty from another, pull off 
everything until you get down to the 
naked soul, and you find that the only 
real difference is a difference of charac- 
ter. Environment counts for very little, 
but character counts for everything. 



SEPTEMBER. 

Thai chastity of honor which felt a stain like a 
wound, 

Edmund Burke. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 127 



September First, 

It is belief in God's existence and 
faith in His wisdom which furnish all the 
noblest motives that actuate us, giving 
us a key with which to unlock mysteries, 
and the resignation of cheerful submis- 
sion when the waves of misery dash over 
us. 

September Second. 

The wise man will spend his greatest 
efforts in acquiring what he can keep, 
and it is folly to exhaust yourself in 
working for what Death will disdainfully 
tell you cannot be transported. 



September Third. 

If what He does is right, then what 
He does is best. It may be hard, but 



128 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

still it is best, and therefore we can be 
resigned though His hand is heavy. 



September Fourth. 

"A soul in New York," said Hiram, 
" ain't wuth no more than a soul in 
Woodbine. A rich man's soul ain't 
wuth no more than a shoemaker's soul, 
or a blacksmith's soul. A soul is a soul, 
the world over, and if you've saved one 
the Lord won't ask whether it lived on 
the back street or up on the avenue." 



September Fifth. 

He may be born in a palace or he 
may be born in a hovel; these are mere 
accidents or incidents. With our false 
notions of good and ill fortune we exag- 
gerate the importance of surroundings, 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 29 

but the eternal truth is that surround- 
ings are of less consequence than we 
think. 



September Sixth. 

" The man who does each day the 
duty given, ain't never more than a 
stone's throw from heaven." 



September Seventh. 

Death makes every man financially 
bankrupt. The moment he dies he be- 
comes poor. There is nothing in the 
Beyond which he can purchase with 
cash. No shroud, therefore, has a 
pocket. The gold from no mine, the 
money from no mint, passes current in 
heaven. The angels carry no purses, 
and the jingle of coin is never heard. 
9 



I30 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



September Eighth. 

Loved ones are standing in the door- 
way of heaven, but there is dust in our 
eyes and we cannot see them. 



Septeniber Ninth. 

" There's lots of people, parson," said 
Hiram, " and good people, too, who are 
everlastin'ly talkin' about duty, duty, 
duty. I'm tired of the subject. If you 
can once fill a man's heart with love, 
the duties disappear. He hain't got 
nothin' left but privileges." 



September Tenth. 

A good woman's love is the strongest 
moral force in any man's life, for in some 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 13 1 

mysterious way she has thrown his 
standard down and set up her own in 
its stead. 



September Eleventh, 

■ Some learns the lesson slow some 

learns it quick 
That broken laws, like guns, are apt to 

kick. 
Take it good-naturedly, or take it cross, 
The thing that's sartin is — you can't be 

boss." 



September Twelfth, 

" I believe in sects," said Hiram, 
"with all my heart, but I can't believe 
in fences between 'em. With a power- 
ful devil to fight, I don't see no sense 
in wastin' our gunpowder on each other. 



I32 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

Instead of sayin' to each other, ' I'm 
right, and you're wrong/ I would have 
'em say, ' We are both right, and the 
devil is wrong,' and then jine forces to 
whip the enemy." 

September Thirteenth. 

There was never yet a sorrow which 
was not a stepping-stone to higher 
things, and never yet fell a tear which 
did not bring heaven nearer. It is the 
evident intention of God that they shall 
serve these purposes, and the mission 
of religion is to keep us constantly mind- 
ful of that fact. 



September Fourteenth. 

What we are after is not the denomi- 
nation, but the Christ who is in it. If 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 33 

you shake the denomination off of a 
man and leave the Christ, he doesn't lose 
much; but if you shake off the Christ 
and leave the denomination, you take 
about all he has. 



September Fifteenth. 

Give us the globe for a footstool and 
a constellation for a chariot, satisfy every 
craving of physical appetite and every 
mental aspiration, but deny us any 
measure of faith, and the sun shines in 
vain, for the cloud within darkens the 
whole landscape of life. Better faith 
with nothing than doubt with every- 
thing. 



September Sixteenth. 

Words are more cunning than the 
subtlest drug, and more effective; for 



134 rHE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

while the one produces death, which is 
a matter of very little consequence, the 
others may result in despoiling a life, 
which is a matter of infinite moment. 



September Seventeenth. 

If possible, think of the other home 
as more real than this one; forever bear 
in mind the glorious truth that this life 
is the portico of the temple, and the 
other life the temple itself; shade your 
eyes, that perchance you may catch a 
glimpse of the white-robed multitude 
beyond the threshold curtained by 
death; listen, that mayhap you may hear 
their voices as they sing of the goodness 
of the Lord. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 1 35 



September Eighteenth, 

Diseases, many of them, are the con- 
sequence of mental conditions, and cura- 
tive medication is to be found in nobler 
thoughts and feelings rather than in 
opiates and stimulants. 



September Nineteenth. 

A soul which is always at rest, not 
because the experiences of life are rest- 
ful, but because the experiences of life 
cannot seriously disturb it — that soul is 
already in heaven, though the threshold 
of death has not been crossed. 



Septe?nber Twentieth. 

The only religion I care anything 
about is that which teaches me to be 



136 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

of good cheer and makes me grateful 
for what I possess. We do not need 
the half of what we demand in order 
to make life comfortable. A slender in- 
come with a warm heart is better than 
riches and a restless soul. 



September Twenty-first. 

If we knew ourselves thoroughly we 
should work with more economy of 
energy and to far better purpose. 



September Twenty-second. 

When there is crape on our door, 
other households are hushed as though 
they shared to some extent our afflic- 
tion, and ready hands are held out, and 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 137 

generous and helpful words are uttered, 
which make us feel that there is a great 
deal of kindliness in the world, after all. 



September Twenty -third. 

Manhood changes to old age like a 
flash of lightning in a summer cloud. 
Some hard work, some short years of 
earnest toil, some days of bitter disap- 
pointment, some nights of weary weep- 
ing, and then the nerves grow dull, the 
sight becomes dim, the snows of winter 
are scattered over the head, the hopes of 
earlier days have either ripened or with- 
ered. 



September Twenty-fourth. 

If you can say, " I have saved this 
man or that man," the angels will reply, 



I38 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

" And at the same time and by that very 
act you saved yourself." 



September Twenty -fifth, 

" Just think of it! " said Hiram, " He 
will take me to a House where there 
won't be no more want, no more sorrer, 
and no more grief! He holds me up 
when I sink under the heavy burden, 
and by and by He will brush death 
aside, give me a share in the general 
resurrection, and allow me to live with 
Him forever and forever." 



September Twenty-sixth. 

If fathers and mothers would see to 
it that their homes are made happy, and 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 39 

have no other desire than that their 
children should make happy homes for 
themselves, this barter and sale which 
enters so largely into our views of mar- 
riage would cease, and the millennium 
would come this way. 



September Twenty -seventh. 

Faith is not the coin with which you 
purchase heaven, but it so forms your 
character that you cannot be kept out 
of heaven, because you have a right to 
go there. 



September Twenty -eighth. 

In the eyes of the Almighty the hod- 
carrier who is honest is nobler than the 
statesman whose eloquence makes his- 



140 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 

tory, but who sells his influence for cash 
or preferment. 

September Twenty -ninth. 

You are a block of rough marble. 
You may some time come to be a statue 
of splendid proportions, but you must 
be chiseled and hammered before that 
consummation can be reached. Grief, 
struggle, disappointment, the whole 
range of sad experiences which fill life 
so full, are the tools with which the 
Great Artist will change your shape by 
slow degrees and convert you from a 
mere block to a thing of beauty. 



September Thirtieth. 

You are to begin by being your simple 
self; you are to continue by thinking for 






THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 141 

yourself and hammering out convictions 
which are your personal property; you 
are to end by acting for yourself. Then 
when you get to heaven there will be 
only two questions for you to answer: 
Did you have a clear and distinct idea 
of what you ought to do? and, Did you 
do what you thought you ought to do? 






OCTOBER. 

They are never alone that are accompanied with 

noble thoughts. 

Sir Philip Sidney. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 45 



October First. 

Speak, then, the kindly, cheering word 
whenever opportunity offers, reach out 
the helping hand to those needy ones 
who cross your path, and you will be 
surprised to find brightness and glad- 
ness in your own life; for no one ever 
clasped his brother's hand without dis- 
covering that in some mysterious way 
he clasped God's hand also. 



October Second. 

Disease never asks concerning a man's 
bank-account when he rings the door- 
bell. He is equally indifferent to all, 
and is never swayed by favoritism. He 
is past all bribery, and has no compunc- 
tion, but goes where he is sent. 



146 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



October Third. 

The heroes and heroines of ordinary 
life are too numerous for counting. 
Men and women are daily facing emer- 
gencies which require a loftier courage 
than was ever displayed on the field of 
battle. 

October Fourth. 

As a general thing, when one slyly 
distils an evil rumor in your ear, it is 
because he hopes it is true. 



October Fifth. 

When men come to be more faithful, 
more loving and tender and charitable, 
the inheritance of nobler qualities will 
slowly obliterate our present heritage of 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 147 

physical evil, and the perfect man will 
be seen on the earth. 

October Sixth. 

But, you say, if we were really appre- 
ciative of the suffering about us, life 
would not be worth living, and we 
should all have broken hearts if we 
literally bore one another's burdens. 
The answer is, the sooner our hearts 
are broken from such a cause the better. 
If it would be a very hell on earth to 
have a keen realization of the crimes and 
wretchedness of mankind, then let us 
live in that kind of hell until we can 
make it a heaven. 

October Seventh, 

I With heaven right ahead of us, and 
the door already swinging slowly on its 



I48 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

hinges, this little front garden life may- 
prick us with its thorns, but the sight of 
our home makes the wound easier to 
bear. 



October Eighth. 

There are bright days ahead, — if not 
here, then there, — and once on the other 
side, we shall see plainly what is now 
hidden. 



October Ninth. 

The man who dies has not reached the 
limit of his powers, but in some other 
world and under more favorable condi- 
tions will take up the work which death 
forced him to relinquish. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 49 



October Tenth. 

Show me the home of a boy, and I will 
prophesy concerning his future without 
a tremor of uncertainty. Show me a 
man's home, and I can account for his 
peculiarities, his cheerfulness, or his 
despair. 



October Eleventh. 

This life is a period of discipline to 
prepare us for a nobler state of existence. 
But what can be said — except that the 
whole universe is a delusion and a sham 
— if, having toilfully prepared ourselves, 
we be told that there is nothing to be 
prepared for? That argument for im- 
mortality is like the cry of innocence 
condemned to death by a capricious 



150 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK 

tyrant, and demanding that the sentence 
shall be set aside. 



October Twelfth. 

It is worth while to live honestly 
since we have a heaven to look forward 
to; and certain it is — as certain as that 
night follows day — that our condition 
hereafter will be decided, not by our pro- 
fessions, nor yet by our creed, but by 
that combination of qualities which are 
summed up in the one awful but also 
glorious word — character. 



October Thirteenth. 

The rich may place a costly monument 
on a grave and the poor no monument 
at all, but the sleepers sleep the same 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 15 1 

sleep, and the monument counts for 
nothing. 

October Fourteenth. 

Above the din and confusion of our 
material life we hear voices which tell 
us that heaven is not far off and that the 
two worlds can talk to each other. 
Bands of earnest men and women gather 
when the day's work is over in the belief 
that these voices come across the wild 
waste and bear messages of affection and 
advice. May it not be true? 



October Fifteenth. 

Think of heaven as much as you will, 
and let there be no limit to your think- 
ing. Your thoughts will irradiate the 
darkness of this life and prepare you for 






152 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

that hour when, with open arms, you 
shall be welcomed on the other shore. 



October Sixteenth. 

The man on a wreck who swims 
ashore on the sly and leaves his com- 
rades in the lurch is a very cowardly 
sort of fellow, and the man who em- 
braces religion because it will help him 
to get away from eternal fire, and who 
does not care whether others burn or 
not, has a very slender chance of win- 
ning the approval of Him who is Father 
to all His children alike. 



October Seventeenth. 

" Well, I am a shoemaker by the grace 
of God," said Hiram. " If I make good 
shoes I shall get just as much credit in 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 53 

the hereafter as you will for bein , a faith- 
ful pastor. All work is noble and honor- 
able, and it'll take a good deal of argy- 
ment to show me that all work isn't 
about equally important." 






October Eighteenth, 

An eager but unuttered thought will 
reach heaven more readily than the most 
golden form of speech that lacks either 
faith or confidence. Many of the 
prayers that have called a multitude of 
ministering spirits from the skies have 
had no other shape than that of a deep 
longing or a simple ejaculation. 



October Nineteenth. 

The opportunity to increase the size 
of the soul is universal, like the sunshine, 



154 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

and there is no niggardliness in any cor- 
ner of the globe. Never yet lived a man, 
whether he slept under a thatched roof 
or in a palace, who lacked the chance to 
hammer his soul into some divine shape. 



October Twentieth. 

A large fortune is the worst accident 
that can befall a youth, for his tempta- 
tions are stronger than his ambitions. 
The boy with nothing to work for is 
already half conquered by evil passions. 
The youth with a high heart and whole- 
some poverty receives his inheritance 
from God, and God's gifts are better 
than man's. 

October Twenty -first. 

" That's so, parson," said Hiram. 
" But if you want 'em to check their 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 55 

tempers for God's sake, and wash the 
dishes with salvation in view, they would 
toss their heads in the air. Human 
natur is laborin' under a great mistake. 
Men and women is willin' to die for the 
Lord, but somehow they're not ready 
to live for Him." 

October Twenty-second. 

Life is given that we may learn how 
to live. Adversities accost us as knights 
of old rode against each other in the 
tournament, and we are either unhorsed 
because we have not steeled our muscles 
to meet the foe, or are victors because 
we can trust our swords and our good 
right arms. 

October Twenty -third. 

The child who carries sweet memories 
with him carries also a shield for protec- 



156 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

tion; but he who hears embittered mem- 
ories falls easier prey to the evils which 
will attack. A happy home in the back- 
ground throws a radiance on each suc- 
ceeding day, even though the day be 
stormy and tempestuous. 



October Twenty -fourth. 

It may seem to be a grim sort of 
argument, but it is nevertheless fair to 
say that our sufferings in this world 
make the necessity of another world 
absolutely imperative. This life, with its 
inexorable griefs, its bent shoulders, its 
bleeding hearts and eyes bedimmed, 
demands a future in the name of ordi- 
nary justice. 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 157 



October Twenty -fifth. 

A purely selfish life, even when it is 
crowned with a kind of success, such as 
wealth, or literary achievement, or fame 
in any of its shapes, is worth less in the 
way of general happiness than the life 
of the humblest artisan who has made 
the most of his environment and the best 
of himself. 



October Twenty-sixth. 

" There ain't no contingencies with 
Him," said Hiram. " No unforeseen 
accident ever happens in the region of 
the Throne. When He promises to do 
anything He's goin' to keep the promise, 
and if after He has give you the pledge 
and you have accepted it, if after that 
you go round with the feelin' that He 



158 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 

can't meet His obligations, why, you 
don't understand who you're dealin' 
with, that's all." 



October Twenty -seventh. 

It sometimes seems as though the 
world had just waked up to the fact that 
the circumference of another life touches 
the circumference of this life, and that 
those who leave us with a whispered 
" good-night " will soon greet us with a 
joyful " good-morning " as we meet on 
the other shore. 



October Twenty-eighth. 

" I've knowed you for a long ten 
year," said Hiram, " and nobody can say 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 159 

but you're a good woman and a good 
mother. Why are you always afraid 
that somethin' will happen to God so He 
can't do what He says He will? That's 
What ails you, and it's jest as much a 
disease as the mumps, and it's about as 
painful." 



October Twenty-ninth. 

The truth is the truth, whether it is 
believed or not. It doesn't hurt the 
truth not to be believed, but it hurts you 
and me if we don't believe it. 



October Thirtieth. 

You may be worth a million, but if 
you have done nothing to make the 
world better you will die a beggar. 



l6o THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



O-ctober Thirty -first. 

As the sculptor finds an angel in every 
block of marble, and with hammer and 
chisel slowly brings it to view, so in 
every man there is a grandeur of char- 
acter, an archangel's excellence, all the 
elements of that kind of success which 
God smiles upon. They need but the 
Master's hand and the discipline of life, 
and then vou will see a true nobleman. 



NOVEMBER. 

Truth is as impossible to be roiled by any outward 
touch as a sunbeam. 

Milton. 



ii 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 63 



November First. 

We may reverently assert that no soul 
ever can, under any conceivable circum- 
stances, achieve in these seventy years 
a moral perfection which corresponds 
with the physical perfection which the 
body easily attains. There is something 
wanting to the soul, then, and that some- 
thing is an extended opportunity, which 
can only result from an extended life. 



November Second. 

Character is a growth, the slow devel- 
opment of years, but it is worth more 
to him who has it than anything this side 
of the stars, and worth more to the world 
as an inspiration and an incentive than 



164 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

all the other elements of civilization in 
splendid aggregation. 

November Third. 

The man whose religion will not stand 
the test of careful thinking has not very 
much to boast of. Feeling has more to 
do with religion than thinking has, but 
the thinking ought to come first in order 
to give direction to the feeling. A man's 
feelings should always be indorsed by his 
brains. 

November Fourth. 

Do not try to adjust yourself to your 
environment, but fill yourself with faith 
and love and unselfishness, and you will 
soon find that your environment is ad- 
justing itself to you. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 6 = 



November Fifth, 

Some folks put theology first and re- 
ligion second, whereas the world would 
be better if religion were put first and 
men were allowed to deal in theological 
speculation much or little, according to 
inclination. 



November Sixth. 

Not all that Christ said two thousand 
years ago is yet understood; there are 
summits still covered with mist; and it 
is more than probable that scores of 
generations must pass before we can 
make practical use of many truths which 
are literally buried in the Scriptures, 
awaiting resurrection. 



1 66 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



Nove?nber Seventh. 

Irritation and worriment produce ab- 
normal states of mind and are to be 
avoided for the sake of physical as well 
as of spiritual health. 



November Eighth. 

The habit of looking at the bright side 
is well worth cultivating; it is a kind of 
practical Christianity which the world 
knows too little about. 



November Ninth. 

" In my jedgment," said Hiram, " the 
best test of man's conversion is found in 
the way he handles the drudgery of every 






THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 167 

day. If he can stand up aginst that and 
hold his own, he can stand up aginst 
anythin' that's likely to come," 



November Tenth. 

A quiet home, on whose altar the 
flame of love and confidence never goes 
out, is as close to heaven as mortals can 
get this side the grave; a home which 
lacks love and confidence breeds germs 
of misery, which multiply until ruin has 
done its awful work. 



November Eleventh. 

Why was the soul made so large, if 
this life is, all? If you were told that 
Niagara was made to drive the farmer's 
grist-mill for a single day and nothing 



1 68 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

more, you could not believe it. Can it, 
then, be true that the soul of man will 
live just long enough to find out that it 
can do something, and then be told that 
it shall never have an opportunity to do 
this something? 



Nove m her Tiv elfth . 

It is impossible to think of God as 
responsible for a body that is imperfect, 
and equally impossible to believe that a 
body could ever become imperfect or 
defective if God's wishes had been ob- 
served and His commands obeyed. 



Nov em ber Th irtce 71 th . 

We are more apt to look on the dark- 
est side of other people's lives and to 
think the worst of them than to look on 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 69 

the bright side and think the best of 
them. At the same time we would be 
glad to have them look at us leniently 
and find a good rather than a bad 
motive. Doing unto others, however, 
as you w T ould have them do to you 
neither suits our convenience nor our 
appetite. 

November Fourteenth, 

The springs of all issues, good and bad, 
are in the heart and mind. Give me a 
perfect body to begin with, and if God's 
laws are my laws I shall keep that body 
perfect to the end of life's pilgrimage. 
Feed me on unworthy thoughts, stimu- 
late my animal passions, make me selfish 
and greedy of forbidden pleasures, and 
the crooked mind will in time make my 
body crooked, for in the long run the 
mind is the bodv's master. 



170 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 



November Fifteenth. 

Much depends on your faith. No soul 
that looks at heaven can be crushed by 
anything that happens on the earth 



November Sixteenth. 

No mortal can have a better starting- 
point than a pious and soul-satisfying 
home. It is a thousand times better to 
have an honest father and a true-hearted 
mother than to inherit riches or social 
position. 

November Seventeenth. 

We talk too much about going to 
heaven, whereas it would be more profit- 
able to discover how heaven can come to 
us. 






THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 171 



November Eighteenth. 

" To do nothing" said Hiram, " is 
what they think makes 'em different 
from the common run of folks. And so 
it does; it makes 'em worse. Then they 
collect 'round 'em a multitude of other 
men and women who take pride in doin' 
nothin', and we've managed to get 
things so askew that we call them the 
nobility. It's noble to be lazy, is the 
gospel of this world. Ain't that queer, 
parson? " 



November Nineteenth* 

111 fortune is spiritually worth more 
than what we call good fortune. The 
rich man's son is apt to slide downhill, 
while the poor man's boy climbs to the 
top. 



172 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



November Twentieth. 

The man who is not conscious of an 
obligation to leave something better in 
the world at his death than was to be 
found there at his birth does not under- 
stand the highest purpose of life. Every 
one's years and example and character 
ought to count for something. It may 
be more or it may be less, but it should 
be something. 



November Twenty-first. 

Words are sometimes as light as 
thistledown in the wind, but at other 
times they are as heavy as lead, or they 
may even crush like an avalanche. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 173 



November Twenty-second. 

You can live in such rare and health- 
giving air that disease cannot touch you, 
and you can live amid such elevating 
ideas that your soul will be in continual 
peace and the small worries and petty 
perplexities of life will have no power 
to disturb your serenity, 



Nov em b er Twen ty-th ird. 

Human nature is like an armful of 
hickory in the fireplace, with an armful 
of pine underneath. The hickory needs 
only to be kindled and it will fill the 
room with genial heat. Men and women 
can do anything under the proper in- 
fluence. The capacity is there; supply 
the motive, and there is no degree of 
heroism which may not be attained. 






174 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



November Twenty -fourth, 

Christianity rests solely on the fact 
that it can do more for us and make 
more of us than any other religion 
known to man. There is no mystery 
in it. It helps us to live honestly and 
to die bravely, therefore we defend and 
support it. 



November Twenty -fifth. 

It is not demanded of us that we shall 
stamp our characters on a generation, 
since the ability to do so has not been 
given; but if we keep our narrow house 
in order, greet the small duties of each 
coming day with cheerfulness, and main- 
tain the calm serenity of a contented 
heart, the evening shadows will not fail 
to bring us our reward. 



mmmnmmniiimmimiiinifiniminiiiiimui 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK, I 75 



November Twenty-sixth. 

In our boyhood, time walks, in middle 
life it ambles, and in old age it pants in 
breathless haste to reach the goal and 
have done with us. A day is a week to 
a child, and a week is but a day to the 
aged. 

November Twenty -seventh. 

You are to do what you yourself think 
is right — not what other people tell you 
is right. You are to exercise your own 
best judgment when deciding what is 
harmful or innocent, and God will reckon 
with you on that basis. 



November Twenty-eighth. 

No man is thoroughly acquainted with 
himself. There are depths and heights 



176 THE HEP1VORTH YEAR BOOK. 

in his soul which he has never explored. 
In one environment he is a common- 
place creature; in another he develops 
into a hero. The possibility of great- 
ness is hidden somewhere in every man's 
nature. 

November Twen ty -ninth . 

" I shall see you and him on the other 
side, but you fust, I hope/' said Hiram, 
when dying. " When you come, don't 
be in the leastwise timid. Some of us 
will be right there to meet you, and I 
guess the Lord'll let me be among them 
that says good-mornm' ! " 



Nov em ber Th irtieth . 

With the spirit of Christ in your heart 
and the principles He announced in your 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 177 

life you are ready for any fate. Your 

days come and go, bearing in their arms 

whatever experience God sees fit to 

send, and when the last one has been 

counted you lie down, saying, " It is not 

the end, but the beginning." 
12 



DECEMBER. 

He conceives that a death ought not to be lamented 
which an immortality follows. 

Cicero. 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. l8l 



December First, 

Angels hover about us, guide our 
wandering footsteps, avert impending 
danger, do what they may to encourage 
and cheer, and after the nightfall of 
death, when the morning comes, they 
will be the first to greet us and welcome 
us to that home where partings shall be 
forever unknown. 



Dece7nber Second. 

A pair of willing hands with poverty 
prophesy a better future for youth than 
a pair of hands with nothing to do and a 
fountain from which dollars can be 
dipped in exhaustless abundance. 



1 82 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



Dece?nber Third, 

Character is not an inheritance, it is 
an achievement. It would be cheap if 
purchased at the price of Golconda, but 
no Golconda can buy it. 



December Fourth. 

You will find the strongest proofs 
that the religion you believe in is from 
God if you will cease studying the theol- 
ogy which is in books and devote an 
equal time to God's poor in your neigh- 
borhood. 



December Fifth. 

" The Spirit of the Lord/' said Hiram, 
"is jest as much with me as I sit here 
peggin' away on Widow Brown's num- 



THE IIEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 183 

ber fives, that are split at the sides, as 
it is with you when you are tryin' to 
write somethin , that'll convert sinners 
and cheer the godly next Sunday morn- 



December Sixth. 

If the universal mind had convinced 
itself in the beginning that unselfishness 
is more profitable than selfishness, that 
purity pays dividends while impurity 
lays assessments, and had continued 
through the centuries to lovingly live 
along the lines of the Creator's plan, 
pain would be a thing unknown, the 
word " disease " would never have been 
coined. 

December Seventh. 

It is not well to despise money, but 
you should remember that while it will 



184 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK.. 

purchase much that is desirable it will 
buy neither character nor happiness. 
Unless you generously share it with 
those who are unfortunate it will make 
you narrow and mean. 

December Eighth, 

Neither riches nor poverty need im- 
pede spiritual progress. One can be as 
noble in two humble rooms as in the 
costly mansion, for whether you are in 
the one or the other the same events 
happen to you, and they must be con- 
trolled by the same qualities of character. 



Decet?iber Ninth. 

Death is no longer the grave-digger 
of the race, but the sentinel who stands 
with his hand on the door of another life, 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 85 



ready to open it when the summons 
comes to each of us in turn. 



December Tenth. 

We are not physically what we ought 
to be because we are not morally what 
we should be. The lower part of a 
man's nature has caused every malady 
from which the world suffers, and no 
effectual remedy can be found until the 
lower is made subject to the higher. 



December Eleventh. 

The wise man has no prejudices. 
What he thinks is wrong may turn out 
to be right, and he has charity for all. 
This is a large world, and its mysteries 
are as yet unsolved. You have no right 



1 86 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

to say, " Believe as I do." That is tyr- 
anny and folly. There are other brains 
besides yours, and probably as good as 
yours. 

December Twelfth. 

The various sects which are scattered 
over the earth are simply so many 
ladders by which the people climb to the 
upper regions. The foot of each ladder 
is on the ground, while the other end 
rests firmly against the Throne. When 
we die we shall leave the ladders behind, 
because they will have achieved their 
purpose and we can have no further use 
for them. 



December Thirteenth. 

Hiram wanted to live a little longer, 
because, as he said to John Jessig, there 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 87 

were some things which he would like to 
attend to personally. " But still," he 
added, with a languid smile, " if the Lord 
has made different arrangements it's all 
right, and He will find some one else to 
look after these matters. ,, 



December Fourteenth. 

The horror of doubt lies in the fact 
that it reduces the soul or the character 
or the man — whichever you please — to a 
minimum, checks growth, and induces a 
spiritual frost which nips the bud and 
renders fruitage unattainable. 



December Fifteenth. 

When you are in the presence of the 
Lord, you will be poorly off if you have 
nothing better to say than that you 



1 88 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 

accepted all the creeds of the church and 
kept yourself unspotted from the world. 
But you will be well off if you can assure 
Him that you kept some one else un- 
spotted from the world at great pains 
and sacrifice. 



December Sixteenth. 

If there is no life beyond the grave, 
our mothers should have wept over our 
cradles instead of rejoicing at our birth. 



December Seventeenth. 

Prayer is either an offering of grati- 
tude or a petition for help. If the Chris- 
tian's faith is genuine he keeps the way 
always open between himself and 
heaven; feels quite a liberty, under all 
circumstances, to state his case in his 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 89 

own terms; is sure that the Lord has not 
retired beyond hearing distance, and that 
what he asks will be granted if on the 
whole it is best that it should be. 



Decern ber Eigh teen th . 

Your life, everybody's life, has its- 
pathetic side, and you will need the sym- 
pathy of God if you are to do good work. 



December Nineteenth. 

Grief over withered hopes cannot be 
assuaged by diamonds and splendor, 
and many a woman has been driven to 
desperation and wrong-doing because, 
in spite of her credit at the bankers', she 
found it impossible to live on indiffer- 
ence and neglect. 



190 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



December Twentieth. 

This brief life is only a trial-trip. We 
pass by a few buoys in the harbor of 
eternal life, we stem the ebb or flood tide 
for a few hours, we just get a glimpse of 
the ocean that spreads beyond our vision, 
and then what we call death intervenes. 
With the great Atlantic of immortality 
ahead of us shall we come to anchor in 
the grave? 



December Twenty -first. 

Mere arguments are seldom conclu- 
sive, for in a debate the brighter or more 
strategic mind takes the lead; but when 
instead of arguments you have facts, and 
can say to the world, " Christianity has 
done this or that; it has caused the 
people to create these or those institu- 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 191 

tions, political or charitable/' then you 
demonstrate its worth or its worthless- 
ness. 

December Twenty-second. 

A man needs ambition, just as a horse 
needs the spur; but you can spur a horse 
until he becomes nervously exhausted, 
and a man can be so ambitious that he 
loses sight of honesty and moral prin- 
ciple and rectitude of character — in 
which case he may be a millionaire, but 
he is at the same time a spiritual wreck. 



December Twenty-third. 

" No religion is wuth havm'," said 
Hiram, " unless a man sticks to it in a 
horse trade, or when he's paintin' a 



192 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 

barn; and if a professor sands his sugar 
and waters his milk, he's goin' to have 
a tough time when certain unfort'nate 
questions is asked by the Lord." 



December Twenty -fourth. 

We were made for eternity, and the 
great ambitions which throb in our souls 
cannot be stilled by death. The funeral 
procession leaves us at the mouth of 
the harbor, and when our friends return 
to their homes we spread invisible can- 
vas and sail on and on toward the throne 
of God. 

December Twenty -fifth. 

Take the apple that hangs within 
reach and eat it. If it quenches your 
thirst and satisfies your appetite, it 



THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 93 

makes no difference who planted the tree 
or how the fruit came from the blossom. 
Religion consists in eating the apple; 
theology, in finding out who planted the 
tree. 

December Twenty -sixth. 

The time may come when our spiritual 
vision will be so developed that we shall 
see what the prophet saw — hosts of 
angels in the air; and that millennial 
period is not far off. 



December Twenty -seventh. 

The hope to attain is always an inspir- 
ation, but actual attainment is frequently 
a disappointment and sometimes a posi- 
tive misfortune. 
13 



194 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 



December Twenty -eighth. 

To begin with a doubt is simply to 
whet your appetite for truth; to end with 
a doubt is to give that whetted appetite 
no food to eat and so to die of starvation. 



December Twenty -ninth. 

The true philosophy of life teaches 
us to do what we can, but not to worry 
because we cannot do more. 



December Thirtieth. 

" Nobody has ever come back from 
the other world to tell the story of his 
experiences there ?" Then close your 
Bible and clasp it with a clasp, for it has 



THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 1 95 

strangely misled us. It opens with the 
declaration that God held vocal com- 
munication with man, and ends with a 
description of the Celestial City, which 
makes the nerves tingle with gratitude, 
while bereavement and sorrow cry out 
with joy. 



December Thirty-first. 

We are on the road home, and the 
way is sometimes dark and dreary, but 
when we get there we shall see that every 
experience of earth was intended to fit 
us for the higher joys of heaven. 



BROWN STUDIES; 

Or, Camp Fires and Morals. 

By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
i6mo, 332 pages. Illustrated, gilt top, $1.25. 

11 In the form of a story, the author takes the reader to the Adiron- 
dacks, where the chief character, with his guides and a dog, spends a 
winter discoursing of life, its demands, duties and customs."— N. Y. Times. 




" It is a sweet, true book, good to read, with much manly vigor and 
not a little feminine gentleness." — Independent. 

11 Mr. Hepworth has done some excellent things in a literary way, as 
4 Hiram Golf's Religion ' bears ample testimony; but we have no hesitation 
in pronouncing this essay, short-story romance, as in every respect his 
best. In something the same vein as ' Dream Life,' it is to our mind 
better." — Boston Advertiser. 



Hiram Golf's Religion; 

OR, 

«• The Shoemaker by the Grace of God." 

By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
29th thousand. i6mo, 134 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 

" Plain talks of a shoemaker and a parson. They are in dialect ; the 
style is both quaint and strong. A book that gives the reader something 
to think about. . . . The sterling, homely common sense of the book 
is commanding wide attention." — The Evangelist. 

44 This little book contains, in quaint and simple sketches, the essence 
of practical Christianity. Hiram Golf is a man who exemplifies the pre- 
cept, 4 Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of 
God.' His talks with the young minister are the best sort of lay sermons, 
and his life is at once a model and an inspiration. The book cannot fail 
to be of service to ministers and laymen alike." — New York Observer. 

"The point is that serving God consists in doing His will, especially 
so as to benefit one's fellow men and women, wherever one finds himself, 
It is a powerful and touching little story and should have a large circula- 
tion." — Congregationalist. 

ALSO NOW READY. 
An entirely New Edition of 

HIRAM GOLF'S RELIGION 

With paper cover. Price, 25 cents, by mail, postpaid. 



The Farmer and The Lord. 

x vol. i6mo, 238 pages, half white cloth, 75 cents. 

41 The Farmer and The Lord" is one of Dr. George Hep worth's 
familiar talks about points in practical religion, after the style of 44 Hiram 
Golf's Religion." The basis of Dr. Hepworth's talks is the promise that 
44 if any man will do His will, he shall know the doctrine." 



Sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. 

E. P. DUTTON & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
31 West 23d Street, New York. 



HERALD SERMONS. 

By Rev. GEORGE H. HEPWORTH, 

AUTHOR OF " HIRAM GOLF'S RBUGlOV," ETC. 

45 Short Sermons reprinted from the New York Herald. 
i2mo, 252 pages. Portrait of Author. $1.00. 

"For months past a sermon has appeared as the leading editorial in 
the Sunday edition of the Herald, and these sermons have » 
published in book form. In reproducing these admirable di 
publishers have unquestionably acted wisely. Both here and m BarOM ■ 
lively controversy has been aroused in consequence of the bold statements 
and striking originality of these weekly essays on religious topics, white 
at the same time great curiosity has been manifested in regard to the per- 
sonality of the author. 

44 But why have these sermons caused such a sensation ? Do they differ 
so much from ordinary sermons? .... Lucidity, brevity, the ex- 
pression of vital truths in clear cut Saxon English, absence of dogmatism. 
an evident abhorrence of intolerance of all kinds, a catholic sympathy 
with human beings of all ranks and creeds, and a determination to insist 
on all occasions that ecclesiasticism, with its formulas and rigid adherence 
to the letter of the law, is quite a different thing from the simple, soul 
satisfying religion of Christ— these, we think, are the chief characteristic* 
of George H. Hepworth, as made known to us through this book, and it 
is precisely because he has given full play to his individuality that these 
sermons of his are well worth reading now, and will be well worth read- 
ing long after the author has passed away." — New York Herald. 

44 In these sermons subjects were chosen which come home to every 
individual some time in his life whether he is in one church or another, or 
in no church ; and they were treated in such a broad way that they could 
be beneficial to all. The sermons have one excellent merit which it would 
be well if some of those given in pulpits could be patterned after — they 
are brief and strictly to the point. Some of the sermons which are par- 
ticularly helpful or suggestive are, 4 A Wasted Life,' 'Prayer,' 'The 
Problem of Poverty,' l Why Do We Suffer?' 'Heroes and Heroines,' 
4 Bearing Good Fruit,' 4 Do What You Think Is Right,' 4 Little 
People Who Live Little Lives,' and 4 You Shall Have Strength.' These 
are a few T of those in the volume, every one of which will contain some 
word for some one in trouble or doubt." — Boston Transcript. 

44 They are addressed to men and women entangled in the perplexities 
of life, and help them not so much by opening to them a larger faith as by 
disclosing to them the hope and comfort which lies in the faith they now 
hold . ' ' — Independent. 



HERALD SERMONS. 

SECOND SERIES. 

By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 

i2mo, cloth bound, Si.oo. 



THEY MET IN HEAVEN 

By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
5th thousand. i6mo, 216 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 

An account of The Fireside Club and its discussions during the 
winter preceding the death of Hiram Golf. 

" This is a tender and helpful study in religious experiences. . . . 
To many Dr. Hepworth's method may be a hand stretched out from 
heaven. To all it will be a book of pure, gentle and persuasive Christian 
inspiration. . . . We have no doubt that an inquirer like Van Brunt, 
shut up in the dark, barren and hopeless cage of intellectual orthodoxy 
and spiritual leanness, would find Hiram Golf's method a door open 
into faith." — Independent. 

M It tells of a small club of friends, one of whom is Hiram Golf, the 
now well-known 'shoemaker by the grace of God,' and how their chats 
brought trust and peace to one bereaved, despairing and almost crazed, by 
unfolding to him the hopes of heaven and of reunion with the beloved 
dead which the gospel suggests. It is eminently readable, and is practical 
and inspiring." — Congregationalist. 

" The reading public, after enjoying * Hiram Golfs Religion ' by this 
same talented author, will cordially welcome this very interesting com- 
panion volume. It is a gem of the first water, like the other. It portrays 
in a skilful, yet natural and tender manner, a case of genuine religious ex- 
perience. It shows how men, struggling in deep mental and moral dark- 
ness — the most unlikely subjects of conquering grace — may be led out into 
life and faith and hope and heaven. Books of this character have a 
blessed mission, and should be warmly received and widely read. The 
narrative portions are fascinating. The whole is put in a most charming 
and persuasive way." — Christian Intelligencer. 



THE LIFE BEYOND. 

This riortal riust Put on Immortality. 

By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
2nd thousand. i6mo, 116 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 

" The author of this choice book is pleased to think that he has made 
no single statement which can in any proper sense be called original ; but 
he has given the oldest truths and the commonest beliefs a freshness of put- 
ting and illustration better than originality. He tells the old, old story : 
he tells it in a way to stimulate interest and desire and afford consolation 
to the wearied and forlorn, who are seeking for sources of comfort in the 
unseen and immeasurable things beyond the vail." — Zion's Herald. 

11 The thoughts presented are expressed clearly and forcibly, and in a 
style fitted to commend them to tried and sorrowing hearts." — Watchman. 



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